Candy Dish Watercolor

Candy Dish Watercolor

I don’t have much experience with watercolors, so this was a bit of an experiment. I’m a little disappointed in the scan… in real life, the interior of the bowl is a little easier to distinguish.

This was painted with a simple two-color pallet — Alizarin Crimson and Viridian. Yes, I know, red and green is soooo cliche for a Christmas theme; that’s why I tried to keep the green really toned down to almost a gray. And besides, it’s not “Christmas”, it’s “Winter”, remember?!

I certainly muddied the red in the hat, and I didn’t really achieve the 3-dimensionality of it. But I learned quite a lot, even from this simple sketch, and I’m sure I’ll figure this stuff out eventually.

First, I learned that I need to be more patient and let the paint dry before going back in to add shadow.

Second, I learned that I need to mix a lot more color than I think I’ll need. Trying to match a mixed color after-the-fact is something that is probably best left to the masters.

Third, I learned that I can counteract the page curling by getting the back of the paper wet (I’m working in a Canson spiral-bound watercolor pad, and I didn’t want to go through the whole “tape it to a board” process).

And finally, I learned that I quite enjoy watercolors; though it does add quite a bit of time to the whole process, and it seems mistakes are not exactly easy to correct.